There's was no timeline under which this was going to be done during Trump's term. The House didn't vote on impeachment until the 13th, and the Dems only even had 48 Senators at that point so they didn't control any part of the trial process - they didn't control the Senate until the 20th, after the GA Senators were certified and Trump was gone to give Harris the tiebreaker. I believe the Senate was on recess anyway and McConnell had already said he wasn't going to call them back. But beyond that, the House' case wasn't developed before the 13th - that's been ongoing the last several weeks. That's when the Senate could have said "hey, we'll let you call witnesses" - the House Managers have always wanted to call them. So while the House didn't control it, the Senate could have made it happen and let them incorporate them into their case - Romney and others were open to it and even wanted witnesses from the start. Basically, at every step of the way, both the House and Senate picked expedience (with no purpose) over presenting the most powerful case. And now they seem to be regretting it and flailing away trying to fix it. That's not to say they didn't make a good case - they did. But they left a lot on the table that would have been so much stronger. They are leaving Senators like Cassidy the opportunity to say things like "The House managers didn't connect all the dots".
The Dems look like they folded and they obviously are folding. However I see a calculation here that there were likely to get testimony that just takes them to Mark Meadows, Lindsay Graham, and Kevin McCarthy as the star witnesses that would ultimately have to be called and holy crap those are people we know have no problem coordinating lies with each other in a way that the Democrats would have no ability to dispute since it’ll be near impossible to get phone recordings. That’s why I always thought the impeachment trial should have been in the Summer after a thorough investigation that gathered the documentary evidence, and allowed the FBI’s investigations to materialize so you could use their evidence as well. So Dems will catch grief for folding today but honestly it’s probably for the best for the Biden admin and if the political calculation for 2022 is to draw comparisons as the party of solutions vs the party of Jewish Space Lasers. If Trump gets off which he’s going to anyways, the party will double down on Trumpism and make the likelihood of them losing big in 2022 and 2024 much more likely. Long term it’ll be damaging in the fact that now it’s officially not impeachable if ANY president loses the election and decides to lead a violent insurrection.
Really applaud your thinking. I was on the "slow roll" train, because evidence will continue to come out, some of it may be even more horrifying and important, but now it will be back page news in June -- some links we share here and shake our heads while our friends on the right call us deranged by Trump. I think a lot of Americans and politicians are ready to be "done with Trump," but whether or not he runs again or whatever, the important point is that a smarter version of Trump is somewhere watching all this very carefully. Could be a right-wing or left-wing politician, but the way to hack our democratic process has been detailed for all to see. I don't just mean the violent riot but all the denial of evidence and refusal to accept certifications, the alignments of partisans in key states, and so on. Trump and his enablers will see (apparently) no consequence for all these anti-democratic actions. And like the house in the floodplain, we'll just "hope that never happens again."
Well.. it looks like no one wants this trial to go ahead. they all want to end.. why even start? call the damn witnesses. Let them talk!! Let people hear what was said. I am glad twitter banned him.. other wise, we would have been flooded with 'TOTALY VINDICATED' tweet nonsense!!
Important point. Just reminding you that what people say their motive is matters. Applies as well when people get incited by religious hate preachers.
I just come in to the D&D from time to time to say how trash the Democrats are. vote in more progressives you cowards.
this whole thing was a joke and a charade from the jump...there is rarely ever any consequences when these people commit clear crimes/offenses everybody’s hoping Trump will get prosecuted now that he’s out of office, but I bet that will be a flop too
Democrats trying to lose elections so they dont have to do anything. Republicans are trash and evil but there is not enough slander thrown at how inept Democrats have been for decades. They lose on purpose so they can whine and say there's nothing that can be done. when they win the say there is nothing that can be done. Establishment Democrats dont use their power ever and should all be voted out.
Both sides wanted to get it done fast. So it’s not a surprise. It’s also not a surprise what the verdict would be, witness or not (even if you had video evidence of Trump calling for ... wait, you do). Anyhow, while I would like to see witnesses testify from the very start, I don’t see how it would have changed the verdict. Maybe it would shift public opinion a bit or a bit less likely, backfire. The only potential reward was shifting public opinion, which in large part probably has already cemented. I also believe that it’s next to impossible to get witnesses to speak up against Trump. The one that has direct knowledge are those that stuck with him almost until the very end or is sticking with him now. ps. Expectation is horrible, some ppl actually think there was a chance of conviction.
"I could shoot somebody..." Next time, he just might. Why not? Man has never been punished for anything.
This is my point - it was done for political expediency rather than presenting the strongest possible case on the merits. That's the reason calling witnesses - by subpoenaing if necessary - and getting them under oath. The statement today was put in the record just to say they did it. But what should have been done - if they were actually trying to make the case - is to use that statement (and others that said McCarthy spoke to Trump) to compel McCarthy to testify under oath. That's how you get people to talk or risk perjury in a situation where there might be a record of the call somewhere.
